The New York Times, BBC and numerous other news outlets reported last week that the Bush White House knew — and kept from the American people — that it was indeed Georgia’s U.S.-trained forces that started the war in the Caucus region last summer. They did so by slaughtering civilians in the capital of South Ossetia before a single Russian soldier crossed the border into that region.

China, hit by the current global economic crisis, with some foreign-operated plants closing down, took immediate, emergency action. Its State Council approved a $586 billion public works program to build new low-cost homes, mass transit and airports. The program will employ tens of thousands of unemployed workers and at the same time build or repair urgently needed infrastructure like bridges, roads and tunnels.